Uwe Schweer-Lambers otherwise known as Equiloud, shows how easy it is to set up a “fake” flocking or a swarm effect using Cinema 4D’s Mograph Module.

How to create a simple flock- or swarmlike animation with MoGraph

I mentioned “fake” swarm or flocking effect, because a true flocking effect requires a bit of inelegance built in, where particles can follow a set of behaviors to acquire their actual motion. Equiloud creates the flocking effect by quite cleverly stringing together a random effector, Tracer Object, and a Delay Effector and notes that this is not the only way to create a flocking effect, in Cinema 4D, but it is pretty versatile and quick to set up.